Profiles

Duncan McCue is a national reporter for CBC-TV News in Vancouver, and his current affairs documentaries are featured on the CBC’s The National. His work has been nominated for Gemini and Webster awards, and he received an RTNDA Award for investigative reporting and multiple honours from the Native American Journalists Association for investigative, news and feature reporting. McCue is Anishinaabe and a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nations in southern Ontario. Throughout his career, he has worked diligently to bring Native stories into the mainstream media.

Euan was born in Bromborough, U.K., which is why he always sounded so smart. Not one for style over substance, he backed up his English accent with an undergraduate degree earned from Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in molecular and developmental biology from the University of London. Trading London for Winnipeg, he held postdoctoral fellowships in cell biology and agricultural biology at the University of Manitoba.

How does one join the Scottish Football Association as its first full-time Compliance Officer? As Vincent Lunny puts it, "Pure luck! Apart from getting paid to watch football, [the best part of my job is] working with the crowd here at Hampden, Scotland's national stadium . . . [My colleagues] have quickly become friends as well as colleagues and we play football every week. I've lost twenty pounds since Christmas."

Whether or not you have an interest in tax law, one thing is for certain, after talking to Kim Brooks you’ll want to sign up for a tax law class. Brooks is passionate about the subject, so much so that she decided to leave the tax law practice and teach and inspire others to pursue the profession ...

On December 29, 2017 Francesca Marzari was sworn in as a justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia before a small gathering of family members, old and new colleagues and courthouse staff she had met during her term as a law clerk.

Keith Chatwine graduated from law school at UBC with the LLB class of 1997. He also received both a Bachelor of Science in 1993 and an MBA in 1997 from UBC. He currently works as a Partner in the Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions Groups at the Calgary office of Stikeman Elliott LLP (“Stikeman Elliott”). Chatwine’s legal practice is diverse and deals with a variety of aspects of corporate law.

“I think probably what I am most proud of is charting my own path and putting together each of my experiences to create what for me is a job that is completely in alignment with my core values. I am somebody that truly loves what I do and I am excited to come to work every day …” – Jennifer McNaught, Legal Personnel & Professional Development Director, Class of 1997.

Matthew Nathanson earned his LLB from UBC in 1997 and is now a practicing criminal defence lawyer in Vancouver, as well as an active volunteer and mentor for students at Allard Law.

Matthew knew he wanted to become a lawyer at a very early age. His father is a lawyer, so Matthew’s interest in the law was sparked by early family conversations around the dinner table about the law.

“I’ve been wanting to be a lawyer since I was a kid. Nobody in my family or relatives were shocked whatsoever when I became a lawyer…People want to be cops, firemen, others asked me ‘What do you wanna be?’ ‘I wanna be a lawyer.’ I always did. – TJ Dhillon, Coca-Cola delivery trucker, real estate lawyer, car enthusiast, immigrant, father, Class of 1997.

Evelyn Ackah is the founder and managing lawyer at Ackah Business Immigration Law, which currently has offices in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto. People and relationships are at the heart of Evelyn’s work, which is why she’s so passionate about immigration law. Learn more about Evelyn, her work and what inspires her.

You graduated from law school in 1997. Looking back now, what would you say was the highlight of your time here?

E. Louise Logan, Class of 1996, saw the potential of public policy to ignite positive social change before even attending her first class at UBC’s law school. “The power of the law and the power of public policy to both cause harm and to ameliorate” not only inspired Louise to law attend school, it has also motivated her two-decade career in public policy.

Melanie Ash served as General Counsel to the New York City Racial Justice Commission from May 2021- December 2022, on loan from the New York City Law Department where she was recently promoted to Deputy Chief of the Affirmative Litigation Division. As GC she oversaw the development of proposals to amend the NYC Charter to begin to uproot structural racism in NYC government.

Often our career follows a very windy path. Despite an early interest in law, Allard Law alum Melanie Ash (LLB ’96) questioned her career choices many times along the way.  Today, she has figured out exactly where she needs to be. 

Victoria Shroff is credited as being one of the first and longest serving animal law lawyers in Canada. In addition to running her Vancouver-based law firm Shroff & Associates, Victoria has served as an adjunct professor at the Allard School of Law, teaching the animal law seminar. Victoria is often approached by the media to comment on animal law issues and is the founder of a social literacy and animal law program called 'Paws of Empathy’.

Karen Lam, Class of 1995, began her career as an entertainment lawyer, but in 2000 turned her attention to working full-time as a writer, producer and director in the film and television industry, with a particular talent for horror films. She has produced four feature films, eight short films and three television series, and has had her work recognized with numerous awards and honours.

Ardith Wal'petko We'dalx Walkem earned an LLB in 1995 and an LLM in 2005, both from UBC. She has built her legal career in areas of Indigenous law including land and resource use and children's rights, as well as access to justice. In 2020, she was appointed as a judge to the BC Supreme Court. She is the first Indigenous woman in BC to hold this position.

Gaynor Yeung is a Director at Whitelaw Twining Law Corporation (“Whitelaw Twining”) in Vancouver. Her legal practice largely focuses on personal injury and professional liability claims. Yeung’s ample litigation experience has brought her before all levels of court in British Columbia as well as administrative tribunals. She is also a recipient of the Peter S. Hyndman Mentorship Award which is awarded annually by the Vancouver Bar Association for outstanding mentorship.

I am a member of the Haida Nation and a member of the Raven Clan. In our oral traditions, Raven was Originally white. There are days and days of stories of Raven as he ... haphazardly brings the world into existence as we know it. Through that process he steals the sun and the moon from their caretakers, flies through the smoke hole in the longhouse and brings light to the world. And when he flew through the smoke hole, he became black.

Cory Kent is a Partner at McMillan LLP (“McMillan”) and currently serves as the Co-Chair for the British Columbia Mining Group at McMillan. He is a legal expert in mining law and its intersection with corporate and securities law. At McMillan he represents a wide range of clients from private and publicly held companies to shareholders and boards of directors. His legal work primarily deals with issues related to the natural resources, cannabis, and technology sectors.

Darwin Hanna is one of the named partners of Aboriginal law firm Callison & Hanna, a firm specializing in Aboriginal law that was founded in 1996 by Hanna and his wife, Cynthia Callison. For Hanna, the journey to starting his own law firm began with his undergraduate studies in criminology. Hanna was attracted to criminology in part because he saw the potential for a fulfilling career, and enrolled in a joint-degree criminology program with Douglas College and Simon Fraser University (SFU) upon graduating from high school in Maple Ridge.